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The bill standardizes and funds modern, machine‑readable consumer energy data access to spur competition, efficiency, and consumer control, but it raises significant privacy, cybersecurity, compliance, and rural‑implementation cost risks that could be borne by households and smaller utilities.
Residential and commercial electricity and gas customers will gain routine, machine-readable access to interval usage, retail-price, and billing-line-item data, making it easier to manage bills, shop for service, and use energy‑management tools.
Third‑party app developers and energy service providers get clearer technical and authorization standards, encouraging competition and new energy‑management products and services.
Standardized data access and authorization processes should raise adoption of measured, performance‑based energy efficiency and demand response programs, helping customers lower usage and supporting grid flexibility.
Households and small businesses face increased privacy and cybersecurity risks because the bill expands access to detailed customer-specific retail data and creates broader data‑sharing pathways.
Utilities and platform operators will incur costs to upgrade meters, software, and reporting systems to meet new categories and standards, costs that may be passed on to ratepayers.
Smaller and rural utilities may face disproportionate implementation burdens and delays, meaning rural customers could get benefits later or face higher relative costs.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires State plans to promote competitive digital energy tools and directs DOE and FERC to issue model retail energy data‑sharing and interoperability standards within 180 days.
Official title: To promote competition in the area of digital energy management tools, enhance consumer access to electric energy and natural gas information, allow for the development and adoption of innovative products and services to help consumers, organizations, and governments manage their energy usage and improve electric grid reliability, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 26, 2026 by Kevin Mullin · Last progress February 26, 2026
Requires State energy plans to include programs that promote competition in digital energy management tools so consumers and their authorized third parties can access and use retail electric and natural gas usage and cost information. Directs the Department of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to jointly develop model data‑sharing standards and privacy-considerate policies for retail energy information and smart meter/platform interoperability, with stakeholder consultation and guidelines delivered within 180 days of enactment. Creates new technical definitions for meters, meter software platforms, grid‑edge devices, and categories of retail energy information to guide the standards and the State plan requirements. The goal is to increase consumer access to energy data, spur innovation in consumer energy management products and services, and support measured, performance‑based energy efficiency and demand response adoption.